Our next stop is the George Williams house (the double red house). It is a pretty typical house for this street. It was built after the Civil War and appears on a map for the first time in 1868. It has some typical features. One is the retaining wall in front of it. Even though it is fairly near to the street, without a large setback, it still has a wall. This wall allowed the homeowner to have 3 or 4 steps up the walk to make the house just a little more prominent. You’ll notice it is a two-family house with a large porch. It was built to house two families since after the Civil War the population was booming and multi-family housing was common. We do not know if George Williams ever lived here – we do know that he built the house and used it for rental income.
From 1871-1874 this house was rented to George Louis Mahn. Up until the 1950s, Jamaica Plain was a prominent German-American neighborhood. The German- Americans were the second largest immigrant group (after the Irish-Americans) in Jamaica Plain in the 1860s. Mr. Mahn was a baseball manufacturer and he actually manufactured his baseballs in Jamaica Plain! He built a factory for that purpose at 39 Green Street. That building was actually built as a factory for baseball manufacturing, even though it has been converted for residential use now. Mahn was a very early baseball manufacturer. The American League was founded in 1901, so this factory was 30 years before that. Its inception was over 6 years before the National League was founded in 1876. People have said Mahn was probably the first modern baseball manufacturer. Mahn became a little more prominent after the National League was founded becausetThe Mahn baseball was licensed to be the standard ball used by the National League. With the NL contract, he had to build a larger factory, that we will see a little later on the tour.